You can watch that documentary.
If you want you may suggest I watch it once more, because I've watched it at least 3 times yet!!!
A great work! congratulations!
Totally false? Weird unlike you I don't read the press release and then hypothesize what the camera does. I actually use the F6.
It is false that the F5 simply averages segments. Exposure Decision is taken by an intelligent process based in a Neural Network that was trained with 30.000 images exposed by prominent photographers. I'm quite familiar with Neural Network algorithms as I personally coded them in software. There is an algorithm named Backpropagation (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpropagation) that is used to adjust coefficients in the network to make those 30.000 well selected samples deliver just the exposure the "prominent photographer" used, so a new situation presented to the system is judged acording to the "conceptual learning" the network acquired from the training. This is not averaging.
Nikon published material with the additional clues for the "feature extraction" performed in the image to feed the Neural Network:
Matrix metering in the F6 is fooled by all sorts of light conditions that would fool any run of the mill avg meter pattern. Subject back lit. Dark backgrounds. Light backgrounds. etc.
My experience is with the F5, if the F6 meter is as good then I totally subscribe Ken Rockwell statement:
https://kenrockwell.com/nikon/f6.htm
Of course the F6 cannot fix bad or too contrasty lightning.
I'm of the same opinion than Ken, IMO a F5 (or F6) is never fooled, still when scene DR is larger than what film will tolerate then we have to sacrifice something, and what the camera decided to sacrifice may not be the same we want to sacrifice. Personally I know how the F5 exposes so I know when it is to do something different than what I want, in that case I shift to manual.
I trained myself in this way: when I've time I always shot manual if having the time, after evaluating the scene in spot mode, I always check how the Matrix mode would expose. Many times after I see what Matrix would do I explore again the scene in spot mode to see the result from the Matrix decision, many times I find Matrix made a better decision after reconsidering my manual exposure. In that way I learned how the camera works and I know when I have to override the Auto mode.
Again, Steve McCurry did not trust the matrix meter in the F6 for the final roll of Kodachrome. In set up planned portraits. Think about that. When it came down to it, all the chips on the table, he did not use it.
I would also not trust an Auto metering with slides, if contrast is to surpass the film capability. If this is the case, and having time, one should spot meter to see what will be sacrificed. If it is CN film you simply pull 1/2 or 1 stop. On a doubt, for important things (combinend with a challenging scene and hurries), you set automatic bracketing which is what guarantees you have the perfect shot.
(F6) It's just a good camera. That's all.
Not only that, the F6 is also the most refined 35mm slr camera ever made. Of course one may not need at all those refinements... his most famous shot, the Afgan Girl, was made with a FM2. Take a today's D6 and try to repeat that...
The most important thing to use a meter properly is to be able to understand it. Matrix metering is a black box and it might be unpredictable.
If one is used to the camera the Matrix behaviour is mostly predictable, or at least you know when there are chances that the Matrix is not to do what you want. You know when you have to shift to manual or (for example) to spot to retain the exposure of the spot you want at +/-0.
So IMO it is not about never using Matrix or about using it always. We have a selector that is at hand to select the most suitable mode for the situation. Of course we may use Matrix never... of even we may not use a meter at all. Sunny 16 is perfect in many situations.
...but a pro firing all day long probably uses Matrix a lot, all he can.
